Drama Production Presents: Grease

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The Drama Production presents their production of Grease at the Downey City Theater. The shows took place at 12:30 p.m. and at 6:00 p.m. on May 10 and 11.The early functions were free for all Downey High School students and were purchased on the annex office, while the 6:00 p.m. shows were $8.00 for Downey High students and $12.00 price for general public on the theater box.

This production was based on the american musical Grease, released in 1971 and with a movie adaptation based on the musical wit the same name, written by Bronte Woodard and directed by Randal Kleiser. The film portrays the lives of two high school seniors: a bad boy (Danny Zuko) and a good girl (Sandy Olsson) during the 1950s.

The director of this play is Mr. Nelson, the teacher responsible for the entire Drama Department which includes Drama, Musical Theater and Drama Production. He was present during the daily rehearsal, coordinating the actors and the production staff.

In order to benefit this production, Dr. Mary Stauffer supported the play by buying all the tickets for the shows at 12:30 p.m. This allowed all the students of Downey High that requested it to get a ticket for free on either one of the shows.

Playing Kenickie Murdoch, Cameron Escurel, 11, talks about his first experience participating in a musical and how he hopes to participate in future ones.

“This is my first musical so it was a lot of fun trying new things out and I had to watch Grease a lot of times to figure out how this character acts and how he stands with his other friends; it was like finding another personality to act as,” Escurrel said. “It was great having this experience and hopefully I can do it next year.”

Isabella Praslin, 9, says thanks to the director of the play Mr. Nelson for giving her the opportunity of working as a stage manager.

“I will like to thank Mr. Nelson for letting me be stage manager it’s an honor for me to work with this people,” Praslin said. “I encourage everyone to see our play because it will be very good.”

Samantha Buell, 12, talks about how she felt portraying French and how she identifies with her on her views of friendship.

“Frenchy was a really fun character to play, I felt that I related to her a lot because we are both like the moms in our group of friends,” Buell said. “We both carry very much about our friends and put them above our problems.”

The play Grease was the biggest project of the Drama Department this year and it proved to be well received on the four shows that took place. The Drama productions are finished but we can expect another play next year with the new actors and backstage staff.